Photo credit: 427FOTO

By Sarah Pickthall

Kris Yoshie is a disabled artistic director of Slow Label, founded in 2010 in Japan. From 2014 to 2020, Kris produced the Yokohama Paratriennale, enhancing accessibility in creative environments for disabled people. In 2017, she produced Japan’s first Social Circus Company, SLOW CIRCUS, supported by Cirque du Soleil, and was the Access Director on the delivery of Tokyo 2020 Paralympics Opening Ceremony. 

Based in Tokyo, Japan, Kris is currently developing a music project called ‘Earth Pieces’. Alongside other creative partners, she is working to make it accessible to disabled and non-disabled communities whilst exploring environmental sustainability best practice. 

Kris was interviewed to explore the developing relationship between access and environmental sustainability within the ongoing project. 

‘This programme aims to raise awareness of accessibility (human rights) and sustainability (the environment throughout society, which unfolds through the hosting of a concert. It is a social action initiative aimed at incorporating unique efforts into various elements of the concert.’ 

 Watch a ‘behind the scenes’ video below.

What is Earth Pieces about and who’s involved? 

The work of Slow Label has historically been seen in a disability context, focusing on access, inclusion, and representation. I felt I wanted to expand thinking and practice to raise greater awareness of both access and environmental sustainability through a music project.  

I also wanted to make that thinking and practice more mainstream and shift attitudes. Earth∞Pieces represents that fusion and that is embodied in the logo.  

It felt really important that the focus of this music work – which uses Beethoven’s Ode to Joy (the Ninth Symphony) – is on everyone having an equal part to play. Even if you can’t play an instrument or read a score, everyone has a right to participate in the ensemble as a vital and irreplaceable piece, which reflects how I see disabled people in particular needing to be seen as vital and irreplaceable too. 

I have the pleasure of working with Shuta Hasunuma as musical director for Earth∞Pieces. We first worked together as part of the Paralympic Opening Ceremony in 2021. Shuta works inclusively in sound and music and has a passion for making work in response to the natural world. 

I also work alongside Hiroko Oshima as co-partner, who I have known for some time. A scenographer and someone committed to countering climate change, she has explored sustainable working within her involvement in Theatre Green Book.  She has brought this perspective to the project with a similar desire to raise awareness and explore environmentally sustainable practice. In particular, she has done this through her recycling of materials integral to the project’s design with the aim of reaching more people with our combined messaging. 

First iterations and awareness raising 

As a team we worked together to produce Earth ∞ Pieces in 2024. This was our first iteration and was a participatory music performance with an ensemble of 28 players -12 of whom were disabled.  

What was of vital importance to the team was bringing the different perspectives of accessible music-making and climate sustainability into educational lectures which were shared with all of those taking part – from artists to participants to sponsors. We did this in order to spread an understanding of the different dimensions in the work before the work was created, so that everyone could understand the ethics and the thinking behind it. 

In Japan the disproportionate impact of climate change on disabled people is more critical because we have ongoing pressing climate challenge with earthquakes and flooding as a regular feature of our lives. These things present huge concerns for disabled people and their supporters in Japan, and also for other marginalised groups – issues ranging from understanding climate information to accessing safe shelters.    

So, the importance of raising awareness on sustainability is even more pressing. This project is a way of developing awareness of the debate about, and development of, inclusive disaster risk reduction. 

Approaches to sponsorship and recycling  

We have at every turn tried to work with sponsors who are ethically and environmentally minded. Our accessible LandLoop mugs have been made from recycled materials that have become synonymous with the project. And, with the help of a citizens group Mori no oto that collects and recycles unused household cloth, we have used materials from the World Premiere to create decorative objects for the venue, such as stools.  

Photo credit: slowlabel.info

Unused shindo ribbon stock was re-purposed for performance bow ties that were made by mothers of disabled children who, through working together, were able to connect with each other, improving their health and wellbeing in the process.  

Photo credit: slowlabel.info

Touring and beyond 

We hope to implement this programme as a legacy of the Tokyo Paralympics in different parts of the world.  

We want to create opportunities for people with and without disabilities from around the world to interact. We hope to tour various regions until 2030 – the target year for the SDGs – and evolve the ensemble with people from these areas = playing the ‘Ode to Joy’ of humanity and Mother Earth whilst we combine thinking and practical action on access and climate sustainability.